InterviewARMY's greatest strength is resilience: scholar on BTS

From left, Mexican content creators and BTS fans Fer Vega, Susy Mouriz and Nataly Pop pose for a photo in Myeong-dong, Jung District, Seoul, March 19, two days before the group's comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Square. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Lee Ji-haeng, assistant professor in the Department of K-Entertainment at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) / Courtesy of JBNU

When online communities grow large enough, conflict is almost inevitable. Anonymous interactions, differing expectations and cultural divides can fracture even the most devoted fandoms.

Yet one global community continues to defy that pattern, according to Lee Ji-heng, assistant professor in the Department of K-Entertainment at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) and a scholar of fandom studies.

"ARMY's greatest strength is not its organization or ability to mobilize," Lee, referring to the BTS fandom, told The Korea Times in a written interview. "It is its resilience."

It is a striking claim, given that organization is precisely what ARMY is best known for.

Formed in 2013, shortly after BTS' debut under what was then a little-known agency, the fandom has grown from a modest local fan club into arguably the most influential fan community in popular music. Over the years, it has powered record-breaking streaming, voting campaigns and even coordinated charity drives.

Yet like any other online-based community, ARMY experiences its share of conflict. For all its reputation of maturity, Lee acknowledged, the fandom also carries the habits of any anonymous online space, where disagreements and hostility can erupt without warning.

What distinguishes ARMY, she said, is not the absence of those tensions, but its ability to recover from them.

"What surprises me most as a researcher is that ARMY is a community with a remarkable capacity for self-correction, reflecting on what happened after a conflict and proposing alternatives," Lee said. "Perhaps that is because ARMY, consciously or unconsciously, tries to find its direction by projecting itself onto BTS."

Spiritual connection among ARMYs

She believes that resilience is rooted in something even harder to explain.

Despite BTS' explosive global growth and the increasing diversity of its fanbase, Lee said concerts and world tours continue to produce an almost spiritual sense of connection, in which people from different countries, languages and cultures leave feeling part of a single community.

"The sense that distinct individuals from around the world, despite their stark and varied differences, feel themselves connected as one community through BTS remains something of an unsolved mystery," she said. "It is the moment when a community of taste suddenly feels like a community of belief."

A speaker delivers a presentation during the fifth BTS: A Global Interdisciplinary Conference at Jeonbuk National University in Jeonju, July 2. Courtesy of International Society for BTS Studies

Examining BTS' success from academic perspectives

Lee shared these observations after delivering the keynote address at the fifth BTS: A Global Interdisciplinary Conference, held July 2 and 3 at JBNU in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province.

A film and media culture researcher by training, Lee is the author of "BTS and ARMY Culture" (2019), which chronicled the global fandom's trajectory and cultural politics during the group's Western breakthrough and has since been published in seven countries. She also brings a dual identity to the field that colors everything she studies — Lee is an ARMY herself, observing the community as one of its members.

She was also among the speakers when the BTS conference first convened at Kingston University in the United Kingdom in 2020, drawing scholars and fans to examine the group's success through an academic lens.

The conference, hosted by the International Society for BTS Studies, has since traveled to the United States, Korea and Malaysia, growing into one of the world's leading academic gatherings devoted to BTS and its global influence.

This year's edition brought together 50 presenters from 10 countries, with Lee's own department being among the co-organizers.

Lee's keynote this year explored the cultural significance of BTS' "new chapter" following the members' completion of mandatory military service, a subject she has studied as scholarship on the group matures.

"Through theoretical and empirical research on the BTS and ARMY phenomenon, a new area of convergent, interdisciplinary research has opened up," Lee said, noting that scholars are now seeking fresh academic perspectives on the BTS-ARMY community "beyond the rationalist paradigm of the West," in fields including postcolonial studies, affect studies, citizenship, translanguaging and international relations.

K-pop boy band BTS performs during its "BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG' IN LONDON" at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, where the group drew about 130,000 fans over two sold-out shows on July 6 and 7 (local time). Courtesy of BigHit Music

BTS, a case study for community in digital world

For Lee, BTS is no longer simply a successful K-pop act. The group and its fandom have become a valuable case study for understanding how communities form, evolve and sustain themselves in an increasingly connected digital world.

The group's shifting place in global pop culture has made that case study even more compelling. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee said, BTS was an outlier in the global music market with a fervent fandom, but one whose character outside Asia was closer to a niche culture.

The pandemic changed that perception, firmly establishing the group in the mainstream music market, and the members' solo projects during their military hiatus strengthened their individual artistry while anticipation for a reunion kept building.

"In terms of fame and anticipation, the group now commands a presence that could well be called the global No. 1," she said.

That rise has drawn far more casual listeners into becoming an ARMY, diversifying fans' inclinations and demands. Some observers read the shift as evidence of weakening cohesion, Lee noted, but the spiritual connection fans experience has remained unchanged despite the transformation.

Talks on AI, fandom

The community's process of negotiation is now entering a new phase as generative artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes online culture. Among this year's conference sessions were discussions on AI-generated deepfakes, misinformation and the changing role of fan communities in verifying information about artists.

Lee does not see the technology as inherently beneficial or harmful.

"We always experience internal fractures because of the technology of our era, and through that process, we negotiate and build new standards," she said. "What matters is what norms and internal consensus are being formed as we pass through this period of fracture, and in what direction fandom codes of conduct will move. I believe observing these things is an important task for scholars."

Digital billboards in Seoul's Myeong-dong, Jung District, displays a welcome message for BTS' fan club, ARMY, ahead of the group's Gwanghwamun comeback concert, March 18. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Hallyu going localized globally

As Korean popular culture spreads globally, she expects it to become increasingly localized, blending with regional cultures rather than remaining culturally fixed.

She pointed to Panda Express, the American chain serving Americanized Chinese cuisine, as proof that hybridity does not erase origins.

"Just as the Chinese identity of actual Chinese cuisine does not disappear because of Panda Express, the Korean identity that Korean artists carry within hallyu (Korean wave) will not disappear as hallyu becomes glocalized," she said.

The greater challenge, she argued, lies in Korea's own attitude toward international audiences.

"Culture is not the exclusive property of any one party," Lee said. "The moment we fall into the trap of originality, believing that only we are creative and only K-content is the best, all the solidarity and relationships built with global fandoms begin to break down."

Global fans today are not passive consumers who uncritically accept well-made commercial content, she stressed, but "a mature and independent group that has led the way in practicing global ethics, cultural diversity, human rights and mutual respect through digital networks."

"The task for the next generation of hallyu is clear," she said. "We must abandon the arrogance of one-sidedly showing 'what is ours' and instead take a deep interest, first, in the cultures and lives of those who have embraced us. The future of hallyu must be redesigned from the restoration of a horizontal and mutually reciprocal relationship."

Looking another decade ahead, Lee expects BTS and ARMY to continue evolving together.

"The journey of BTS and ARMY over the past 10 years was a growth narrative in itself," she said, tracing an arc from resistance against social pressure through the confusion and wandering of youth to inner reflection.

"Ten years from now, within that life cycle of growth, they will likely be building a narrative that fits whatever stage they have reached."